Westwood One Adult Standards Video

[publisher]

Perhaps this was shared previously, but I just ran across it: Mark Haden, a former disk jockey for WW1/Dial Global's Adult Standards format, posted video a while back of the format's switch to a digital ENCO system in August 2002. There are four clips (one includes a brief tour of the WW1 studio). You also get to see/hear the programming in action. Interesting to me, but all the music heard except for the final piece by Vanessa Williams, I believe, remains on the current Adult Standards playlist. Mark's periodic commentary is interesting, too.

Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJzvBB-fW1U&list=UUg13KEwfUhsqi07ZaNsLtxA
Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLf9-_gtCeE&list=UUg13KEwfUhsqi07ZaNsLtxA
Part III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB48OC4LDBY&list=UUg13KEwfUhsqi07ZaNsLtxA
Part IV (includes brief walk-around): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk8BzVX1eC4&list=UUg13KEwfUhsqi07ZaNsLtxA

There are also classic demos for the Transtar launch from 30 years ago on Mark's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/studiodudeio/videos

 

[mike847]

I'm sorry this doesn't make sense. Is this a local station playing the Westwood One Adult Standards format? Why do I hear an ID for for KJWL? The title, to me, meant that this would be the studio that feeds the satellite and thus the affiliate stations.

I haven't seen these clips before this point in time, if I had I would have asked this question more than a decade ago. ;-)

So this is a local station, correct?

Thanks.

Mike

 

[vchimpanzee]

This is the national feed, and I don't understand the point of the station IDs either.

I finally got to see these. This was interesting. I had emailed the information to myself but somehow overlooked it until yesterday. And for several weeks the one library where I can watch videos (I can't watch videos at home with no speakers and slow Internet; other libraries expect you to bring your own headphones) was having problems with their upgraded computers. Plus I had episodes of a Canadian TV series that took priority since Youtube was removing these episodes, which the Canadian web site won't let Americans see even though earlier episodes were on NBC in the U.S.

A couple of things I noticed. Back in the old days, the DJ would do the station ID, so it was obvious after the song he was waiting until after each station had done its own station ID with his voice. Also, they no longer have the DJ telling us about the song that airs during the commercial break.

My affiliate has never had any of the DJs doing station IDs. It still uses leftover station IDs from when it was ABC Unforgettable Favorites. There are female voices singing "America's Best Music" followed by the station's name, and there may be other station IDs that mention "America's Best Music" but I can't think of any.

Those DJs work harder than I would have thought. I thought all this stuff just got done, but of course there's the chance something would get overlooked or done wrong. And I never thought of calling the man who is on next.

I haven't had time to watch all the videos yet but one with sample music from an AC format and the voice of Chick Watkins had, I believe, only two songs that are not in the current America's Best Music. "Listen to the Music" by The Doobie Brothers, which was on The CMA Awards for some odd reason, and "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. I like the first one okay but would prefer to keep it out of this format. The second I don't EVER want to hear.

 

[Nick Gerard]

I worked at WW1's Adult Standards for just over a year in the mid-2000s, so it's very nostalgic for me to see these videos that Mark posted.

To answer mike847s question: when we hit the button to trigger the legal ID or the 3-second station identifiers that aired coming out of a song, it fired the individual IDs of all the affiliates. The KJWL ID that you heard was just a program feed than ran in the studio so the air personalities knew the IDs or 3-seconders were airing network-wide at that moment. It was not KJWL's over the air signal. Any of the affiliate IDs could have been used for this purpose, really. They just happened to use K-Jewel, perhaps because it was one of our really significant affiliates.

Those were great days, working at the Adult Standards network. Ed Brand, Bill Jones, Chick Watkins, Mark Haden, Jeff Rollins.....I loved all those guys. Loved every minute of working there. It was a rush.

Nick Gerard

 

[vchimpanzee]

The KJWL ID that you heard was just a program feed than ran in the studio so the air personalities knew the IDs or 3-seconders were airing network-wide at that moment. It was not KJWL's over the air signal. Any of the affiliate IDs could have been used for this purpose, really. They just happened to use K-Jewel, perhaps because it was one of our really significant affiliates.

I had that same experience calling the 800 number for ABC Stardust. It just happened I was hearing what was going out over the air, or in this case, what was heard in the studio, because of the time I called.